Recent Posts - page 223

  • Pointers to the Ultimate, by Ajahn Sumedho

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    Travelling in a Snowstorm Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797–1861)

    In any religion there is the exoteric side — the tradition and forms, scriptures, ceremonies and disciplines—and the esoteric, which is the essential nature of that. So, in much of what we call religion, the emphasis is really on the external form.

  • The Saving Lie, No Lie, by Trevor Leggett

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    Hill of '100 steps', Shinryu-sha (神龍社). @KyotoDailyPhoto

    It can be argued in his defence that from the highest point of view there was only the Buddha nature under the Buddha floor boards; there was no-one there. So from the highest point of view he was telling the truth and not lying.

  • Maha Prajnaparamita Sutra – Tangut Manuscript

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    Prajnaparamita

    The Buddha: Without mark is this perfection of wisdom. Just as the element of space and the element of air cannot be approached by the mark of the total reality of any dharma, just so the perfection of wisdom.
    The Questions of Suvikrantavikramin. Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajnaparamita.

  • We can always start anew, by Ajahn Sumedho

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    Jizo Bodhisattva (Ksitigarbha)

    Emotions can be very convincing, very powerful, like a melodrama. They can sound real and true when they’re going on. But, at that time, there was that which was aware of them; an awareness of those emotions as mental objects was established already. And I trusted in that.

  • The Long Way Home, by Sun Shuyun

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    Tang Xuanzang

    On my journey, I think I found the other side of Buddhism, predominately the role of the mind. Buddhism is not as criticised or attacked in the historical Marxist approach, the materialistic approach which maintains that the mind is really not important and that our material condition determines everything. Some of the monks in the monasteries laid down their lives to defend their faith…

  • Biographies of Three Books

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    Tibetan Book of the Dead

    The idea of writing a biography of a book: what a great idea. Well done Princeton University Press for coming up with ‘Lives of Great Religious Books’. Lives of Great Religious Books is a new series of short volumes that… Read More ›

  • Suffering does have its good points, by Acarya Shantideva

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    Mii-dera (三井寺) - Misshaku Kongo Photo © @KyotoDailyPhoto

    If life were based upon what we liked, then not a single one of us would suffer, because nobody wants to be in pain…

  • Self is Heavy, by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

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    Stone Rakan

    Often, when we say that there is no self, people get worried, or angry. Their attachment and identification to this idea of a self is so strong that they actually become hostile towards us if we begin to say there is no such thing. We need to explain this a bit, therefore, so that you don’t get mad at us. The idea of a self is common to everyone. Whether we come from the East or the West, we have some kind of idea and belief in a self, every one of us, absolutely; it is a fundamental illusion that arises in all human minds. Indians, Thais, Chinese, everybody, is walking around with this idea of a self, a soul, an atman, or whatever we want to call it.